Politicians promise a subway in Kalyaninagar

Sitting corporators and political aspirants from wards under the Kalyaninagar electoral Panel No. 17 have assured the residents that they will give highest priority to the dangerous pedestrian crossing at Shastrinagar Chowk, while attending to other problems.

The construction of a pedestrian subway at Shastrinagar Chowk to facilitate safe movement on the busy Ahmednagar Road and getting a Y-shaped flyover sanctioned for the area, to help improve the traffic flow, would be top priorities for the elected representatives, they assured.

The political representatives were speaking at DNA’s ‘My Locality, My Voice’ initiative on Saturday evening at Joggers Park in Kalyaninagar. The event saw participation of a large number of residents and members of the Kalyani Nagar Residents Association (KNRA), the Karne Path Parisar Samiti (KPPS) and the National Society for Clean Cities (NSSC), among others.

The political representatives who spoke included sitting Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) corporator from Don Bosco ward, Bapurao Karne Guruji; Vijay Patil, son of sitting NCP corporator from Aga Khan Palace, Prakash Galande Patil; Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) aspirant from the area, Jayant Mohite; former Congress corporator and aspirant John Paul; and Congress aspirant Sunil Mhalke.

Prominent speakers at the event included KNRA’s chairman, Surendra Kumar Agarwal; KPPS convenor Smita Murudkar; and NSCC president Satish Khot, who moderated the question-answer session.

In his introductory remarks, DNA’s resident editor, Abhay Vaidya, said the ‘My Locality, My Voice’ initiative was undertaken to bring about a constructive dialogue between political aspirants and residents in the runup to the civic polls, slated for early next year.
The meet was also organised to strengthen and empower residents’ associations and encourage people from housing societies to step out and vote.

Vaidya said the KNRA was cited as an example of an effective residents’ association worthy of emulation by residents in other localities. Also, Jogger’s Park was a well-known example of citizens’ initiative. However, while the area had good footpaths, some of them were badly maintained. The problem of difficulty in crossing roads was mentioned by Vaidya.

A PowerPoint presentation on the major concerns of the area was made by journalist Ritu Goyal Harish before the main proceedings began.

The political representatives were sensitised to the problems of mushrooming illegal hutments in the Karne Path area, the acute problem of parking of vehicles in the inner lanes of Kalyaninagar, illegal encroachments and the poor upkeep of footpaths, strewn with rubble.

The political representatives replied to questions put by residents and gave a commitment of taking up the concerns.
“Ahmednagar Road being considered as a death trap for pedestrians, a subway and a flyover is a must in the area. Though last year the budget fell short for such a construction, the upcoming budget will surely afford the construction of the

subway,” Karne Guruji said.
The encroachments by hawkers of footpaths and public places was the issue discussed the most. NSCC president Satish Khot said he has proposed to the municipal commissioner that all 77 new electoral wards should have at least two dedicated hawkers’ zones, which can be complete family places.

“We can start with an experimental hawkers’ zone in Kalyaninagar, where all the hawkers of the zone can be given space such that all footpaths are hawker-free,” said Khot.

Other issues taken to the corporators by the residents were indiscriminate parking of cars by the information technology personnel in the region.